[HOT] Nametagging: Local script versus "international" latin script

[Claudius Henrichs]

Hi there HOT team,
I recently got in touch with a fellow mapper who had added "Tripoli" to 
the name-tag in addition to the local used arabic script during his 
participation in his H.O.T. remote mapping efforts. His argument was 
that he like many others who want to help can't read arabic and many 
other tools like emergency frameworks rely on the mapnik rendering.
The first point (illiteration in certain scripts of the world) probably 
applies to 40% (just a guess) of populated surface of the earth so I 
guess this questio is quite relevant. I would like to get some insight 
on the second point he made. Maybe you can shed some light on this:

1) Do emergency relief organistions rely on the default Mapnik rendering?
2) Are there frameworks in place to help them quickly generate 
English-labelled maps of a certain area or even better bilingual ones?
3) What's the general recommendation you give for HOT mapping efforts 
regardings the main name-tag?

I don't want to see the naming efforts of the Iranian mapping community 
being countered by some well-intended addition of English names once we 
have the next earthquake there. I think no one
wants to rename a chinese province affected by the next flooding for the 
same reason.

Maybe I can convince german community member Stephan Knauss to join the 
HOT team as he set up great bilingual maps like 
http://thaimap.osm-tools.org or http://iran.osm-tools.org

Regards,
Claudius
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